Battle to the end: Coley

John Coleman thinks League Two will continue to be a close affair until May.

The seventh placed Reds travel to ninth placed Crawley tomorrow, who are level on points with Coleman’s side, hoping to put some distance between them and the chasing pack.

Just four points separated Stanley and 16th placed Wycombe.

“I think it will be a strange league this year,” said Coleman. “I think you could go into March and someone will make a bolt for it and a club could shoot up the league with a bank of four or five successive wins.

“It’s going to be extremely tight until the very end.”

Stanley have had to battle a sick bug in the camp this week which saw the players given Tuesday and Wednesday off to clear it up.

“We had sickness in the camp and were mindful we needed to keep it contained. We came back in on Thursday and now have a clean bill of health,” said Coleman.

“We do though have Seamus Conneely missing through suspension tomorrow which is a big blow although whoever comes in to replace him will be fine.”

Crawley finished 20th last season, but under Dermot Drummy, they have had a similar start to the new campaign as Accrington.

“They are a decent side,” the Reds boss. “They have good players and play a certain way which should lend itself to being an attractive game tomorrow.

“We seem to play better away from home, the way we set up seems to pan out that way, we get more opportunity to use the ball away from home.

“I have watched Crawley and it will be a tricky game but then we will give them a difficult game as well.”